The Rock Music era was responsible for many of the timeless songs that we all automatically know when we hear them on the radio today. Everything from the early pre-rock evolution like Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly, the real popularization of the genre with The Beatles and all the way through the 70s and 80’s, the world famous rock groups made some of the greatest hits that the music industry ever saw. Even today, they are still “better” songs than most new music coming out. The musicians and artists of this era had something really special that is not usually evident in modern music. I believe it was a mindset that differs from that of today’s artists. Back then, the industry was all about feeling, emotion, sending a poetic message, and essentially a lifestyle. Although some newer artists can relate to some of those aspects, overall, what drives the music industry is money and ratings in today’s world.

If you were to poll a group of people, I can guarantee that all of them have some kind of rock music either on their mp3 players, or in their house somewhere. It is engrained into our lives and influences the way we live our lives. It is everywhere you go. Whether you’re at a hockey game, listening to radio stations, at parties, or wherever else, it is dominant over all other types of music.

There was a point in time during the 90’s when pop music like Britney Spears and The Backstreet Boys was extremely popular and may have slightly drowned out the influence of the Rock Genre on radio stations, but it was still there. Even with Eminem’s debut of hardcore rap music and the birth of hiphop culture, Rock music was right there beside those other music genres still going strong.

In the electronic music era of the present, we are seeing the reintroduction of Rock music coming back into our lives more and more in the form of sampling. Artists are using small clips of older Rock music or musical phrasing within their own genres of music to create common ground with listeners, and just because it sounds cool! From the electronic dance music genre, to R&B, hiphop, and alternative types of new music coming out today, they all use sampling to relate to their audiences. Why is that? Could it be that Rock music has been around for such a long time, and is preferred by so many people that the only way to have the majority of people listen to your music is to add their “favourite flavour” to it to interest them?

It is a shame that more of the Indie Rock Artists who create music today are not recognized in the mainstream music industry. Some of them have some real potential. You can be guaranteed that one day, those bands will become popular again though. It is only a matter of time before Rock music is once again the biggest thing in the music industry. I believe that many other music genres come and go in their own period of time, but Rock Music, the very soul of music, will always be the choice of most people.

I am in the process of writing a series of informational articles about the connection between the guitar and music genres to enlighten readers of some of the more technical aspects of music.

Feel free to read my article “Guitar’s Influence On Rock Music”, a light read about how the guitar affects the sound of rock music, and some of the tricks used by rock guitarists that have transferred into today’s music.

When I learned how to play the piano, it was during the late 80’s and early 90’s, and there was no way of course at that time to learn music online. My background in music caused me not to think too much of sites for learning how to play an instrument online at first. After all, there used to not be as many resources when the Internet first became popular. While it’s great to have a teacher in person, many people these days who want to become a drummer for example, have the advantage of advances online resources that make learning to play an instrument quite easy.

If you think about it, technology these days allow for people to take live lessons from people online via a live video chat session. There are multiple platforms for this type of communication, but there are also many resources for people who want to teach themselves to learn to play an instrument. There are also people that have paid sites that will teach you how to play in a more uniform manner, following set directions.

There are also people who love to play an instrument by ear. I did learn to play the piano by learning the notes, but I can play the piano by ear to a certain extent as well. If you can play be ear or watch someone play and pick up on a certain song or style of music, then music videos and other online resources will be able to help you play all kinds of things. If you’re a guitarist, you can practice guitar online and improve your skills.

Think of online resources also as modern sheet music. You can get anything you need online and not just sheet music in the traditional sense of the phrase. If you’ve been thinking about learning how to play a musical instrument, then maybe it’s time you looked at what online resources you’d be comfortable with using. Find more information here.

Water Damage San Antonio Experiences Is No Match For Community of Music Lovers

One of the things I love about my hometown San Antonio is that it never runs out of festive events. What I do love the most are the music festivals. I like the feeling of being around with so many people who are there for the same reason – to enjoy music with the crowd. It’s a great venue for making new friends and sharing the same craziness with music.

It was from a music festival where I met my friend Ted. We became good friends because we share the same interest about music. One thing that binds us our friendship is our appreciation in country music. We enjoy the songs from different genres like pop, oldies and rock but it is in the simplicity and sincerity of the country songs where our hearts are tuned in. My orientation with the country genre stretches way back at my teenage years when I happened to listen to my father’s favourite records every Sunday morning. And these are mostly country songs in the 80’s. I was drawn to it because of its heartfelt compositions and every song seemed to have a story.

Both Ted and I recognized that the country music has not pleased everyone. Some people who are same of our age grew up hating this kind of music. They thought the songs are cheesy and that these are the soundtrack of a lonely small town. We cannot force them to change their minds. But we continue to take on the country music rodeo ride.

Many days were spent having jamming sessions with Ted playing our favourite genre. Eventually, friends were starting to come over and we have a get together on a regular basis. Some of them were country fans and some were just taking the chance. We came up with an idea of making a night in a week as a time to gather to make music. Fridays are then called “Jamming Session Night”. We usually spend the session nights at my home. Come through cold and rainy seasons, we were there to spend the night together. But when a storm had struck and caused severe flooding and the worst water damage San Antonio has ever experienced, our sessions had to stop for a moment. A lot of water had seeped into our home reaching the basement where sadly, some of the spare musical instruments were there. It was too late to salvage them. My house had been a mess after the flooding. I was tackling with damaged furniture and floors. One of my friends was smart and thoughtful enough to send in my removable carpets out for a professional carpet cleaner to handle. I was fortunate to have Ted and some friends who helped me in the clean-up and restore the place.

It was uplifting to see friends volunteering to help me after the deluge. We continue to make music every Friday night to the same place that has been revived. Without my love for country music, I wouldn’t have known these friends. I realized that I made meaningful connections with these people through music.

Joey Crews, My Mom’s Excellent Real Estate Agent in Weaver AL

I decided to visit my mom this past weekend. She lives in Weaver, AL. She grew up there but moved off for many years while my dad was in the army. She moved back in 2008.

My childhood and formative years were spent moving across the world so I never got a chance to live in Alabama. Since growing up and spending some time there I’ve found that it’s a really cool place. There are beautiful mountains all around the Choccolocco Valley as well as beautiful sites atop Cheaha mountain. Since growing up, I’ve learned a lot about Alabama and have come to appreciate it.

I love mountain biking, and there is an excellent trail called the Coldwater Mountain Bike Trail. This is my favorite trail in all of the Southest. Here is a video of one of the trails that I took:

Anyway, about my mom and Joey…..they met back in 2008 when mom moved back. She was actually looking for a good friend to hang out with but found out Joey Crews was also a great real estate agent too. He was the top producing agent in all of Calhoun County. He works for a company called Keller Williams located at 1805 Hillyer-Robinson Pkwy Suite A
Anniston, AL 36207. They spent the next 3 months looking at over 60 houses. After my dad’s accident, my mom was left with a lot of money and she intended on spending most of it on a house. Her budget was $500,000, which is pretty crazy. There aren’t a lot of houses in Calhoun County in that price range but they looked at every single one.

Here’s Joey and my mom back in 2008. Isn’t she gorgeous!?

In all of the time since 2008 and now, believe it or not I had never met Joey! I was always on some sort of tour or he was at a real estate convention or something similar. Well, all of that changed and we finally met over the weekend! I have to say, he is something else! His personality is magnetic. I love being around him. It’s easy to see why he is so successful at selling.

Check this video of him doing a presentation and you will see what I’m talking about:

All 3 of us spent the weekend together and we made lots of memories. Joey told stories about multimillion dollar deals and I told stories of music and life on the road. I told him about my new Paleo diet that I’ve been on. He said he’s more of a fan of Matt Stone’s RRARF diet, which I’m familiar with.

Joey actually grew up in Weaver himself and graduated from Weaver High School in 1991. He’s only a few years older than me.

We talked and laughed well into the morning. The drinks were flowing and I think there was a mutual agreement that we would have to do this again soon.

I have to say, this real estate agent in Weaver AL definitely caught my attention this weekend. I don’t know his orientation (I have a pretty good idea of it) but I sure wish he’d give me a chance 🙂

Anniston Plumber Wants to Join Local Rock Music Scene

Rock music and plumbing? Do they go together? These words are like night and day, unrelated, yet could be patched together to create something unique. Google both words and this guy appears. A real plumber and music lover.

His name is Summit Backs! At least that is what he claims. He has been in the service industry of plumbing for ten years. He knows the ins and outs of plumbing like the back of his hand. His plumbing company, C Mac Plumbing and Drain Cleaning, takes pride in being one of the most sought after plumbing service company in Anniston, Alabama. This is because the company lives with the highest standards and employees like Summit Backs. Even during the dead hours of the night, this plumber and his company will come to the rescue. They will do their job for you and might even “serenade” you. So they claim! They offer the same services as Latta Plumbing (205) 631-6445.

Summit Backs wants to be a part of the local music scene in Anniston, Alabama. Having heard about the the local band My Lucky Number featured on Rock 105.9, he says, “Maybe it is time to pursue my passion.” His real passion, he says, is music. Being a plumber for him is just a job but music is his life. His enthusiasm and excitement about being a musician far exceeds his vigor about being a plumber. He says, “Please don’t get me wrong. I like being a plumber but I love making music.” So he claims!
To prove his point, Summit Backs had this tattoo on his left arm. It represents both his passion and his work. The “unholy alliance” of rock music and plumbing. The tattoo artist even wondered why somebody would conceive such a tattoo and put it in his body. Still, this rocker/plumber is unfazed, “The tattoo is unique and it represents me” he says. In order for him to stand out, he really needs to improve how he presents himself. The local music scene in Anniston is already saturated with aspiring and well-known bands. Getting in will take a lot of will. Once this guy becomes successful, maybe it would be time to find another person to fix your sink. So this blogger claims!

Most of the musicians are inspired to create music that will make their listeners feel good and relax about it. The songs they compose always come from their hearts because they want their listeners to enjoy the sound of their music every time they play it to their audience. Musicians are not only responsible in composing songs and recording music, they also provide entertainment to the people especially when they are on stage. Because of that, they want to make sure that they are physically fit and healthy to look good every time they are on stage, and playing their beautiful music.

Ways to be Fit and Healthy

There are plenty of ways for musicians to be fit and healthy for them to have an excellent stage presence for their live performances. One way is to do regular exercises and make sure that they are capable of doing the planned exercise routines. They should always see if the methods or routines of exercises that they plan to do are reachable. They can check if they can reach the goals of these routines once they tried it for the first time. They can start by attending free sessions at the gym and take the course of exercises that they want to try. Once they tried it, they can evaluate which routine would be perfect for them to start.

Basic Exercises

Running around the gym is a good cardio routine to help them prepare for the more tiring course of routines. They need to prepare their heart that it can compensate with the exercises they do. After running for a couple of minutes, they can continue cardio workouts by doing treadmill exercises. This is a good method to help them lose their calories that can later contribute in losing weight. There are more basic exercises that they can use in the gym such as cycling, weight lifting, and do Zumba dance routines. All of these exercises are helpful, but exercising is not enough, they also need to eat healthy and follow a diet that can help them shape up their bodies.

Paleo Diet Breakfast

The Paleo diet consists of different food choices to eat. The choices of food in this diet are healthy and nutritious. They help cut down or lower the levels of carbohydrates, cholesterol and calories. The goal of this diet is to decrease the risk of getting obese, and blood clots that can later increase the chance of getting heart problems. To know more about it, here is a list of the food choices in the Paleo Diet Breakfast.

1.Meats that are grass produced
2.Seafood especially several kinds of Fish
3.Fresh vegtetables and fruits
4.Foods with seeds
5.Nuts
6.Fresh Eggs
7.Selected oils such as macadamia, coconut, olive, avocado and walnut

The selections of food in the diet are well gathered and tasted by the experts. They were able to try it to several health enthusiasts and were all successful in reaching their goals in getting the best healthy food to help them to be physically fit and healthy. Musicians now can play well with confidence on the stage with the audience because of the right exercise and diet chosen.

For some people, movie stars, celebrities and music (rock and roll) icons are like gods. Fans worship some of their favorite music icons so bad that they would do anything to stalk them, learn about their lives and their past, know their schedules and be in each and every commercial shoot, concert, guesting and band practice. Such fandom has somehow crossed the line from fanatic to stalker and from impressive to creepy.

Sometimes, all it takes for these fanatics to let go of their fantasy of worshiping rock and roll gods is to give them the chance to see their idols in a real situation that shows that these people are just but humans as well.

This is certainly what happened to Michelle, my school mate that was an obsessed fan for a rising rock and roll band. She dreams about them, has pictures of them on her wall, stalks them via the internet and she would pour her heart and soul into fighting online with people that claim to hate the kind of music they play. Whenever she hears of a gig in nearby towns, she would spend all her savings into renting a car and driving all the way to the site, just to see her idols in action.

She has been so caught up in the idea that her idols are perfect creatures, capable of anything possible, that one day, she cried terribly after realizing that this vision of hers was not true, that indeed, these rock band were just a bunch of famous human being just like everybody else.

She went to a nearby commercial shoot that the rock band was endorsing. She watched the shoot; she had binoculars with her just in case the blocks were closed far away for her to see them up close. When she arrived at the scene, the crew was just preparing for the first take so the band members were resting in their trailers. She scouted the area for the trailer of her idol, the lead vocalist, and when she saw it, she immediately focused her attention there.

As she watched, she saw that her music god is having troubles with his trailer truck. It had damages from the outside which meant damages inside. She recalled that the trailer went through a terribly flooded area just to reach one of the locations for the shoot. It was a couple weeks ago and she figured that it should have been fixed by his managers. Apparently, it was not addressed because now the water damage has become a lot worse than it should have.

She thought that her idol would be able to handle it. That he will find a way to fix it. However, what she saw caused dismay. She saw him get mad at everybody around him. He was frustrated and shouted at his PA to fix the job. His PA seemed to have called a flood cleanup NJ company because a few hours later a service truck came to the scene. They went ahead and did their job.

That day she learned two things. Seeing her idol get mad like that at the people around him really hurt her and made her realize that he was not above anyone else; that he was just like everybody else, human, and capable of negative emotions. However, she also learned that this dismay should not make her stop idolizing this rock band, because, they still play really good music. It was just her over-the-board fandom that created too much of an image, resulting to her own dismay on reality.

Science has done a lot of impressive things, and this includes finding out why people like me, love rock and roll so much. The study concludes that distortion in rock sounds similar to the noises an animal makes when in distress—which, as part of the animal kingdom, excites us human listeners.

How people respond to that study is not my major concern. If they say that being excited over music is a negative thing, then that is their choice. They want to live a dull life, then let them live so. If people perceive the result as a means to spark an excitement in their life once in a while, through listening to rock music, then we are on the same page, my friend. Life can’t just be about what is there and what needs to be done and how people should act according to society. Life also needs excitement, and rock music can be a good source for one.

On a personal level, though, I love rock music, especially mellow rock, because at its best, it’s greater than the sum of its parts and a genre that lets every member of a group shine. A rock and roll band will have talented members that play together for a good combined music, but will also have the talent to stand out and stand alone. Meaning, they will not be left behind the face of the vocalist, they will be heard even when they are only holding the guitars or the drumsticks.

When you take away the voice, there are still things you can appreciate. There is the great drumming, the amazing guitar riffs, the important bass, and the unique soloing. You can never be bored with a good rock music tune.

Of course, there is the fact that rock music is best when heard live, and being in live concerts and events is a great experience everyone should try once in a while. Yes, rock is also good on YouTube and recorded materials, but nothing will ever beat a rock and roll band performing live. You can just get lost in the moment and bang your head to the beat without giving any care for the people around you because they are also getting into the moment and swinging their heads away.

If you are a fellow mellow rock lover, then you should make it a point to be updated of the latest things and events

Image Credit: keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk

about anything and everything rock. I have just started this blog, but trust me, soon enough, it will be filled with the things you need to know about rock events. I have hired a local SEO expert to help me boost this website for a better searching experience from my soon to be followers.

That may sound a little too boastful right now but that’s just how confident I am that sooner, I will be helping a lot of rockers out there, as well as their fans like me. I will connect their world and ours, by providing the most detailed and recent news about where they are and what they are up to, so that fans can check them out and party rock with all of them. I hired a Birmingham SEO for that to happen, and I expect nothing less. From experience, I am sure I will not be disappointed by how things will work out soon.

So, better bookmark me now and wait because soon, this site will be your best friend for rock news.